A researcher who nearly dropped his PhD in the self-driving boom is glad he didn't
chris_j_paxton · x · 2026-08-19
Robotics researcher Chris Paxton shares that during the big self-driving boom of the 2010s he seriously considered leaving his PhD for industry — and is now "very glad" he did not, offering it as "just a data point."
The quoted tweet he replies to describes a top-5 researcher the poster has worked with — background in optimization and interpretability, fresh off an Apple MLR internship with glowing recs — now exploring dropping out for industry, and offers intros to teams hiring for research roles with publishing scope.
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